The Pacific, 1993: A Japanese cargo ship bound for the UnitedStates is instantly, thunderously vaporized, taking with it aNorwegian vessel. Japanese fanatics have developed a chillingplan to devastate and destroy the Western powers. From theocean depths to the discovery of cache of lost Nazi loot,DIRK PITT is untangling a savage conspiracy and igniting adaring counterattack. While Washington bureaucrats scramble,a brutal industrialist commands his blackmail scheme from asecret island control center. And DIRK PITT, the dauntlesshero of Sahara and Inca Gold, is taking on death-dealing robotsand a human-hunting descendant of samurai warriors. Pittalone controls the West's secret ace in the hole: a tidal wave ofdestruction waiting to be triggered on the ocean floor!

"Action-packed... Cussler grabs the reader in the opening chapter, starting a rollercoaster ride of heart-stopping adventures, disasters, and coincidences.... Dragon is every bit as thrilling as his earlier Raise the Titanic!

"Action-packed... Cussler grabs the reader in the opening chapter, starting a rollercoaster ride of heart-stopping adventures, disasters, and coincidences.... Dragon is every bit as thrilling as his earlier Raise the Titanic!

"Unrelenting... DRAGON is a swell adventure story."

"Pure fun.... Cussler's ability to dredge up forgotten

facts and link them to imagined future events lends fresh

twists to the techno-thriller.... Watch ou for paper

cuts as you turn the pages faster and faster to keep up

with Cussler's intense pace."

"Cussler is a master of building suspense and tension....

[DRAGON is] high-tech adventure, a little romance, and a

whale of a story...."

Since then he has continued to write Dirk Pitt® adventures while living a life that nearly parallels that of his action hero. Like Pitt, Cussler enjoys discovering and collecting things of historical significance. With NUMA (National UnderwaterandMarine Agency, a non profit group begun by Cussler) he has had an amazing record of finding over 60 shipwrecks, one of which was the long-lost Confederate submarine Hunley. Cussler also has a renowned and extensive classic car collection, which features over 80 examples of custom coachwork.

Along with being Chairman of NUMA, he is also a fellow of the Explorers Club (which honored him with the Lowell Thomas Award for outstanding underwater exploration), the Royal Geographical Society and the American Society of Oceanographers. Married to Barbara Knight for 40 years, with three children and two grandchildren, he divides his time between the mountains of Colorado and the deserts of Arizona.